The explosion of network connected devices has led to an increased use of certain protocols. For example, ZIGBEE® is now commonly used in many applications, including utility meters, lighting systems and the like.
Manufacturers of products using IEEE802.15.4-based network protocols, such as the ZIGBEE® network protocol, deliver their products to customers, often with pre-installed software. This software is intended to be a reference design, showing the customer the capabilities of the product. However, increasing, customers wish to use this reference design as the final product software.
While reducing cost, effort and time to market for the customer, the use of the reference design as the customer's final product software presents issues for the manufacturer. For example, a particular customer may want certain parameters set to unique values in their version of the reference design. These unique values unfortunately may be different for a second customer.
Further, as the manufacturer updates and enhances their reference design, they may be forced to create multiple versions to meet the requests of all of these customers who rely on a customized version of that reference design.
Another approach is for the manufacturer to supply the source code to the customer and allow the customer to make the customizations themselves. The customer would then load the customized software into their products, overwriting the original reference design. However, this approach now requires that the customer employ personnel with this skill. Further, if the customer purchases hundreds or thousands of units, the time and equipment needed to reprogram all of the units may be overwhelming.
Therefore, an improved system and method of allowing a network device to receive a reference design with unique customization would be advantageous. Further, it would be beneficial if this system and method was simple to implement so as to be easily accomplished.